Cross-posted under "Jack Turner" at Jack and Jill Politics
Very little introduction needed. Short, funny and brilliant. Spread like fire, please.
Now that you've had that dose, let's talk about how the War on Drugs has been a War on Colored Folks for some time now. I eagerly await your revolutionary plans in the comments section.
Some facts:
- There are 2.24 MILLION people in U.S. prisons. America leads in absolute numbers and per capita among ALL nations in the world. For a country that touts freedom so much, we sure do lock up a lot of people. Hopefully some enlightened country like Cuba will liberate us and spread some of that freedom here
- From drugpolicy.org: Although African Americans comprise only 12.2 percent of the population and 13 percent of drug users, they make up 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 59 percent of those convicted of drug offenses causing critics to call the war on drugs the "New Jim Crow."
- From an interview at Truthdig: "You go back to 1925 and the black rate of incarceration is about twice that of whites. By 1990 it’s eight times the rate of whites. So what’s happening here is this extraordinary acceleration in the incarceration of black people and the single most important factor is the drug war. "
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